This invention relates generally to maintenance of commercial fleet vehicles, especially aircraft and more particularly, to methods and systems for a centrally managed maintenance program.
At least some known airlines prepare customized scheduled maintenance programs for individual regulatory approval based on the manufacturer's standard instructions. However, because the airlines lack fleet-wide information, the airlines' maintenance programs can be conservative, inefficient, and costly. The approval process for implementing new or modified procedures is a duplicated process—taking place at every airline through the assigned regulatory authority.
Currently, maintenance programs are enhanced at two levels: Firstly, with the manufacturer, program enhancement proposals are reviewed during periodic industry steering committee (ISC) meetings. This activity is supported by data from participating operators. The data primarily represents scheduled maintenance findings. In-service events are largely missing from this process. The optimization process is very conservative and applies to all operators with minimum feedback on program effect on the operation. Secondly, airlines also enhance maintenance programs within their own operations. The process involves analysis of maintenance data pertaining to their own operation and at times with consultation and information exchange with the manufacturer. The information exchange is mainly limited to component data and does not reflect all aspects of fleet performance.
Maintenance program enhancement relies on performance data from airplane operation and maintenance activities. Many monitoring and performance management tools can contribute to making this process more efficient. However the basic processes used by airlines to customize and manage maintenance data have not taken advantage of these tools and have seen little change over the last two decades.